On September 1st, I participated in the blogosphere's "Blogging for Relief" for Katrina victims. Just over a month later, we're starting to fully appreciate the effort it will take to rebuild people's lives. Niche causes and like-group-helping-like-group are starting to emerge ... to take care of their own, so to speak. Two of these are near and dear to my heart.
First, as a creampuff, I know the difficulty of getting quality clothing that fits on a good day when the mall is open, fully stocked and not under multiple feet of water. This is a lot harder for us plus-size gals when we're living in shelters and the local goodwill only has size 6 t-shirts and leggings. The SWAN project in the states has set up a program through Friend Ships to get plus-size clothing to people who need it. This program involves you shipping stuff somewhere, often difficult for us in far-away places like Canada. A great woman-owned plus-size shop in California called Making It Big has made it dead-easy to donate a care package. You give 'em some money and they do the rest -- coordinating efforts with SWAN and the Red Cross.
The second relief effort is by First Book, an organization dedicated to getting children from low-income families reading and owning books. They are organizing publishers in the states who are donating books. Again, the issue is shipping. So, for every 50 cents, they will send 1 book. If you belong to Book Crossing (a whole 'nuther reason I love the Internet and a whole 'nuther post), First Book has set up a special page to donate and then track the books.
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